There For You
by TheSunglassesGamer
Summary: Kelly and Marco have to rely on each other to deal with the hardships and relationships in their lives. Kind of but not really any specific ship, based off of events after Season 3 A.
1. Chapter 1

"Glob Glor?"

"No, I don't want to talk about it."

"Glob Glor."

"That's not true. I'm fine. Star's my friend first, my… anything else second to that."

"Glob Glor?"

"That's not-" Marco let out a groan of frustration and let his head fall back to stare at the ceiling. It had been three hours since Star had left to go on her date with Tom, leaving Marco to look after Glossaryck. After the incident at the Monster Bash, she was trying to unwind from her princess duties and get some perspective and some much needed R&R. With Tom. Marco, her loyal, dutiful, understanding squire had stayed behind to make sure Glossaryck didn't burn the castle down. He remembered her saying in passing as she left, "Don't worry, we'll only be an hour or so, nothing big." Three hours later, Marco was still looking after Glossaryck, cleaning up after his messes, pulling with all his might to keep him from running away to who-knows-where, trying to feed him, and Star was still on her date.

With Tom.

Marco clenched his teeth and flexed his fingers. He shouldn't be so jealous, he reasoned. After all, Star had already confessed her love to him a few months ago and he'd turned her down. She was dating Tom now, and seemed to really like him again. Tom, for his part, and despite everything that had happened at the party, had grown a lot in the last couple of months. They were a good couple, and both deserved to be happy. They were also his friends, and he should want the best for them. It was unfair for him to hate Tom, to want to punch his stupid, ugly, pretentious, wity-

Marco shook his head and looked up. He wished he hadn't. To his dismay, Glossaryck had thrown up again, leaving a pile of smoldering, gelatinous rainbows and glitter on his bed. For the fourth time that night, to boot.

"Oh come on!" Marco whined, shoulders drooping in despair. Glossaryck looked at him with a vacant expression before scratching his ears and bounding off to some other part of the room. Marco scowled and muttered something dark and bitter under his breath before getting out his cleaning supplies. As he started to scrub the magical bile off of the floor, he tried to keep his eyes on Glossaryck to make sure he didn't run off somewhere. He didn't, thankfully; He just kept staring at Marco with his big round eyes. They reminded Marco of a dog. "A particularly dumb dog," Marco muttered, eyes squinting at the troublemaker. Glossaryck continued his stare, unaffected by the slight. After the mess was done, Marco let himself fall back into his chair and glared at Glossaryck.

"Glob Glor?"

"No, Glossaryck, I'm not going to tell her. She's too busy right now. Maybe later." Marco's voice sounded less than convincing, even to himself.

Glossaryck pursed his lips together, eyes furrowed, body hunched up and tense. Marco rolled his eyes and gave him a frustrated, weary look.

"I can't tell her, Glossaryck. She's my friend. It'll make things… weird. And complicated. Especially since she's busy putting the kingdom back together and trying to deal with the racism against monsters and crap in her family and Tom and- yeah. It's too much. Me randomly confessing my crush for her would be the straw that breaks the camels back." Pride filled his voice, giving him more of a backbone than he usually had. "She's my friend, and I'm her squire. I won't do that to her, no matter how much it sucks for me."

Glossaryck's stare continued, but Marco didn't let up. They kept at it for a solid ten seconds before the little blue creature sighed. Marco smirked. He hadn't won many victories in the past couple of weeks… months, really, and it felt good to succeed at anything. He felt absurdly good about himself and relaxed in his chair, a cocky smile breaking out across his face.

Then Glossaryck's eyes went wide. He shouted "Glob Glor!" and jumped into Marco's pocket. Marco, who hadn't been prepared for the attack, fell back in his chair, causing the chair to fall into the ground. Marco's head rapped against the ground and stars swirled in his head. It took a second for him to collect himself and whine softly, "Damnit, Glossaryck." The little blue man wriggled and jiggled inside Marco's pocket, clearly looking for something. Marco grabbed him by his gross, hairy legs, repressed a puke of his own, and yanked the little nuisance out of his pocket. He stared daggers at Glossaryck, ready to snarl something nasty at him, until he saw what was in his hands. Glossaryck had Marco's phone in his hands, and it was ringing. Kelly's number appeared on the front alongside her face. He took the phone out of Glossaryck's hand and took the call.

"Kelly?"

"Marco!" Kelly's voice came out sharp and tense. "I need your help."

Marco's back straightened. He got up off the chair and started scrambling around his room, looking for his dimensional scissors. He pressed the phone up against his ear with his shoulder, asking "What's up?"

There was a moment of silence before Kelly replied, "It's… complicated. I can't get a hold of anyone else. I'm at the remains of the bounce lounge. I don't have a lot of time, just- please."

Marco frowned down at his phone. Kelly had sounded scared, yes, but she had also sounded… guilty? Embarrassed? He shook his head. He could sort out what issue she was in whence he got there. Besides, she was his friend. You don't let friends down.

"Be there in a second," he said, rummaging through his drawer until his hands brushed up against the cold metal of his dimensional scissors. In one motion, he drew the scissors out and ripped a portal between worlds in front of him.

He jumped through the magical portal into a dark, cold room that stank of sweat stains and half eaten food. There were no visible sources of light, though most of the room still seemed to be visible to Marco. What was once the Bounce Lounge now was only a loose collection of drink and food stained clouds, some leftover wrappers and photos, and a few tables, half of which were stacked in one corner of the depressing scene. Kelly's head popped out from behind the tables, then zoomed back down. Her hand shot up and waved at him to come over. Marco jogged over and leaned over the tables to find Kelly balled up against the side of the improvised barricade. Her whole body was shaking, including her hands, which were both wrapped around a long knife.

"Kelly, wha-" Marco started before he was pulled over the tables and landed on his belly next to Kelly. The landing knocked the air out of him and nearly cracked a rib. He let out a small sound. Kelly winced.

"Sorry, sorry." Kelly's apology was quick but genuine. Her shaking had forced her glasses to slide down her face and she pushed them back up her nose. "Keep quiet, I don't know when he'll be here."

"Who?" Marco whispered, still on his stomach.

Kelly stopped shaking. She suddenly became very interested in the ground beneath her. She didn't respond at first, but right before Marco could ask, she spit out "My landlord."

Marco blinked. "You're…"

"My landlord. Tad-", the name seemed to taste bitter on her tongue, "-had helped with paying rent. A lot. I've been trying to keep up, but…" she trailed off and shrugged. "I'm three weeks past rent payment, and my landlord is... pretty intense." She closed her eyes and leaned heavily back against the tables. "I'm sorry, Marco, this is gonna sound really lame, but- I- I need to borrow some cash."

Marco stared at the distraught young woman for a long three-count before asking, dumbfounded, "You pay rent?"

Kelly's eyes blinked open and she looked back at Marco with an equally awkward face. "Uh, yeah."

Marco's eyes squinted at her, as if trying to remember some formulae for a math problem. "But… isn't your hair like a house of it's own? Can't you just… live in it?"

Kelly blinked again, still recovering from the sudden tonal change. She'd expected him to give her a disgusted look, berate her for abusing their friendship for money, and then ask why he should give her the money. She had expected there to be a long argument where she just might be able to get the money she needed to stay alive for the day, at the expense of a good friend. She had not expected him to act so calm and curious.

She shook her head. "I mean, yeah, I can kinda go in and out of my own hair, but I sort of need a place to keep myself while I'm in there, you know? Can't just leave a pile of hair lying on the streets."

Marco thought about it, then nodded. "Never thought about it like that. Makes sense, though." His eyes furrowed in concentration and gave Kelly a concerned look. "Why didn't you ask someone earlier? We would have helped you out."

Kelly bit her lip and looked away, frustrated by the question. She knew who he was talking about: Tom, Star, Pony Head, Marco… her friends. Any one of them would have helped if she had asked (after all, Marco had just come to help), but that didn't mean she wanted to ask for their help. The idea of asking one of her friends for money felt gross and vulgar to her. And besides…

"It's Tad," she said. Her voice was full of irritation, but it wasn't directed at Marco. "This was part of me moving on from him: being able to pay for rent myself, to be able to live on my own. I wanted- no, I needed to prove to myself that I could live without him." She sighed, bags showing underneath her eyes. Marco had never seen someone so exhausted, so worn and weary, tired to the bone. Not even Star with all her princess duties and family issues had seemed so distressed.

"Kelly," Marco said in a reassuring voice. "Just because you're living without Tad doesn't mean you have to live without us." He gave her a warm smile. "We're your friends, Kelly. We're here for you."

Kelly stared at Marco for a long time before she smiled back. A tear started to fall from one of her eyes but she brushed it off. "You're a good friend, Marco. A really good friend."

Marco chuckled. "Sometimes," he admitted. "Sometimes." He got up and offered his hand to Kelly. "Come on, let's find that landlord of yours and figure something out."

Kelly took his hand and got up. Marco noticed how soft her hands were. Weird. Her body seemed to tense up by just a hair as she looked around, seemingly expecting someone to appear. "I doubt we'll have to go looking for him," Kelly noted cynically.

Marco blinked. Before he could ask Kelly why, however, a giant black portal opened in the sky. From it's dark, endless void jumped a knight and his steed, both armor and equine black as the void from which they came. The knights sharp, menacing armor looked immaculate, save for the insidious brown stains it wore as testament to it's use. In the knight's right hand was held a shield, equally as black as the knight who held it, with an unrecognizable crest shaped into the metal. In his left, he had a double-sided battle axe. Twin points of red flame flickered from where the knight's eyes should be. Marco could not see an inch of his skin, nor if he had any skin to begin with. The horse let out a puff of breath and nearly made both teenagers pass out. Marco gulped.

"Cool landlord," he said. He tried to act tough and macho in front of the obvious threat, but it came out too thready and shaky to be convincing. Kelly nodded.

"Hey Bruce," Kelly spoke to the knight, apparently Bruce, in a much more confident tone, although hers was also tainted with fear. "How's tricks? Angela still doing fine?"

The black knight inclined his head to Kelly. "My tricks are functioning flawlessly. Angela, on the other hand, is sick at the moment. Common cold, I believe. She's been in bed for the past three days. Seems to be getting better, but-" He shrugged. "You know how she is. Damn immune system couldn't keep out a virus if it was already half dead."

Kelly suddenly became much more relaxed and sympathetic. Marco, however, kept tense and frightened. "Oh, Bruce. You really need to get her to a specialist to find out what's wrong."

Bruce's flames grew dimmer. "I can't pay for a specialist when young ladies I can usually rely on for rent money don't pay their dues three weeks after their deadline." His left hand gripped the axe a little tighter. Kelly's face went pale. Marco saw it and snapped out of his haze of fear. His hand shot into his hoodie and, after a moment of shuffling around, came out with a large wad of cash.

"Will six-fifty cover it?"

Bruce looked down at the wad of crumpled bills, then at Marco. "I haven't seen you around before," he noted calmly.

Marco shrugged. After searching for it since the black knight had appeared, he had finally found his backbone. "I'm her friend. Just helping out, you know."

Bruce stared down at him, then shrugged his shoulders. He took the cash, sorted it out to make sure it was the correct amount, then removed a ten dollar bill. "The rent is only six hundred and forty dollars." He looked back down at Kelly. "I hope your job searches go better. Otherwise, I recommend that we terminate the lease soon. I won't be able to wait this long next time."

Marco had difficulty reading the knight, but Kelly got him. She gave him a small, sad smile and nodded. Bruce nodded to her, then a nod to Marco, and then his horse jumped ten vertical feet back into the portal, which subsequently closed. Marco and Kelly stood there, looking at the where the portal had been. Then Marco shivered.

"Damn," he muttered, trying his best to stop himself from shivering. "That's one hell of a landlord."

"Nice guy, though," Kelly commented. "His wife has some sort of immune system deficiency, and he works hard to keep her healthy and strong."

"Really hard."

Kelly snorted. "Yeah."

Silence. Kelly turned to Marco, eyes not quite focusing on him. "Thanks for ever-" Marco's pointer finger was on her lips before she could realize it.

"Coffee."

Kelly blinked. "What?"

"Coffee," Marco repeated, voice a whole lot firmer than usual. It was the voice he reserved for helping out friends with their issues. "You and I are going to get coffee. And over coffee, we're going to talk. Because-" He looked her right in the eyes, unwavering, " I think we need to talk."

A protest started to rise up inside of Kelly, but it died off. Marco had just blown his whole month's worth of savings on her. And he was her friend. "Ok."


	2. Chapter 2

Marco blew the steam off of his coffee before taking a tender sip. The scalding liquid burned his tongue and he scowled at it. _Damn interdimensional coffee is always too hot,_ he thought bitterly. Kelly gave him a I-told-you-so look and held up her iced coffee. Marco's scowl grew indignant.

"It's coffee, Kelly. It wasn't made to be served cold. That's like having a peanut butter and fish sandwich. The coffee's supposed to be hot, just, you know, not this hot."

Kelly's mouth curved up into a smirk. "Sure, sure. You just keep burning yourself while I get to actually enjoy my drink."

"Heathen."

Kelly giggled. After she had relented on the offer to get coffee, she and Marco had made a quick stop by Mewni to pick up Glossaryck (who had just been about to eat a tub of paste, thinking it was glue). After that, they stopped by the best known coffee within the universe: The coffee dimension. Marco had ended up using his last ten dollars to pay for the coffee, despite Kelly arguing that she should pay for it. Marco had argued back that he needed to get rid of the remains of his six hundred and fifty dollars or be cursed with bad luck till his next check came in.

"Do you really think you'll be cursed if you don't spend the rest of your cash here?"

"Yeah," he replied adamantly. "There's only been one month where I didn't use all of the money in one day, and you know what happened that month? Star left, her kingdom got destroyed, and she nearly died. No thank you."

Kelly's eyebrows quirked up. "You think your lack of blowing all your money in one place is why everything went to hell?"

Marco stared down at his coffee for a long while. "I… no. It wasn't my fault that Toffee came back and did what he did, but still," he gripped his coffee cup just a little harder, "I don't want to lose Star again. Not like that. I- It makes me feel safer, that's all."

Kelly's amused look had transformed into a surprised and then a pensive expression. She looked down at her own coffee and bit her lip in thought. "I can see where you're coming from. I used to do that with… I used to do that a lot too."

Marco looked up to find Kelly's face scrunched up and tense. He knew who she was talking about. Kelly hadn't reacted to her most recent breakup with Tad like her previous breakups. Instead of crying and drowning her loneliness and depression in goblin dogs, she now seemed quietly distressed and bitter. He knew that she wanted to talk about it with someone, or at least needed to talk to someone about it, but he wasn't sure if right now was the time. Besides, he had asked her to accompany him for coffee to talk about more pressing matters.

"Soooooo," Marco said cautiously, unsure of how to approach the subject. "Your, uh- your rent." Kelly's body tensed up and she shifted around in her chair uncomfortably. Marco silently cursed himself for his lack of tact. He'd been as subtle as a freight train crashing into a oil rig.

"I'm not sure when I can pay you back. It might take a long time, but-"

Marco blinked his eyes and then shook his head vigorously. "No, no, I'm not asking about the money, the money doesn't matter." He stared right at her, imploring her to look back. She did. "I'm asking if you're going to be able to keep up with this month's rent."

Kelly pursed her lips and took another sip of her coffee. She exhaled and pushed some of her hair out of her face before replying, "I don't know. Depends on if I can keep the second job or not."

Marco cocked his head to the side. He knew about her first job, working at a local fast food joint: "The Milkyway Sliders", but he hadn't know that she was working a second one. Hell, from what he remembered, Kelly had already been working full time at the burger joint. "What's the job?"

Kelly let out a heavy sigh. "Garbage man. It's during the night, so it won't interfere with my time at slider joint."

Marco shook his head. "Geez, Kelly, that's like, what? Sixty hours a week?"

"Seventy," she corrected sourly. Then she shrugged as though it weren't a big deal. "It's a living."

"No, it's not," Marco countered. "It's survival. Are you sure there aren't any alternatives like…" he fumbled through his thoughts for a few seconds before snapping his fingers and declaring, "Your parents!" Then he blinked and quietly added, "Uh, do you have parents?"

Kelly snorted. "Yeah, I have parents, Marco," she replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, I-" Marco's cheeks flushed with embarrassment and he grew defensive. "Well, I've just never seen them or heard about them."

Kelly nodded soberly. "That's because I haven't talked to them for over a year."

Marco's embarrassment was replaced with shock. A whole year? He couldn't imagine himself not talking to his parents at least once a week, if not closer to once a day. Even while he was living with Star on Mewni, he had made sure to keep in touch with his family and friends on Earth. "A whole year? You haven't talked to them for a whole year?" Kelly nodded tightly. "Why?"

Kelly brushed her hair back behind her ears, a mostly symbolic and insecure gesture with her mop of untamable locks. When she spoke, her voice sounded resolute, calm, but her eyes didn't meet Marcos. "They didn't approve of Tad. That was it for me. There were other issues I had with them, but it mostly came down to him. I'd been dating him secretly for about a year before they found out. There was a lot of fighting and words said that shouldn't have been. In the end, it came down to either me or Tad. So I moved in with him. That was the last time I saw them."

Silence followed her words. No one else, save for a barista on her phone in the back room and Glossaryck, who had stopped his chewing of the table leg to look up, was in the café. A dying neon light just outside the building zipped and zeeped in the background. The smell of old coffee and small pastries became ever more present in the dimly lit room as Marco thought patiently. Then he stated quietly, "I guess this is the part where I ask you why you haven't done the obvious."

Kelly's eyes darted up to meet Marco's, then back down again. Her face grew tight with frustration and she gripped her coffee harder. "No."

"Why not?"

"I just- I just can't, Marco."

"You need to-"

"I don't need anyone!" She half shouted at him. Her grip on her coffee cup had tightened into a fist, and the crushed coffee cup splashed onto the table, Kelly, and Marco. Marco blinked coffee out of his eyes and stared imploringly at Kelly. Kelly looked down at her cup, winced, and then got up to get paper towels. She returned a moment later, her face cleaned up, and gave Marco some of the towels. They cleaned themselves and the table in silence, neither one looking at the other. Kelly sat back down and whispered, "Sorry."

Marco stared at her, waiting for her to talk. He waited almost half a minute before Kelly, more distressed and indignant than he'd ever seen her, said, "I grew addicted to Tad. Maybe that was partially because of the goblin dogs or the parties or our moments together, but I just- every time I was away from him, I kept getting sick and depressed and feeling so," she gulped and her voice trembled, "so useless."

A tear fell down Kelly's face. Marco had trouble breathing. He knew exactly what it felt like to fell useless, meaningless, worthless. It was part of the reason he'd wanted to go back to Mewni and on adventures with Star, because they were the only times he'd felt like he had a purpose, like his actions mattered. He remembered spending sixteen years with Heckapoo for the same reason. When he had first met Star, he'd rejected her at first until they had fought off Ludo for the first time. Of course, it hadn't been the fighting that had changed his mind, it was her talk with him right before the fight that had gotten him to take her in and become her friend…

Right?

"Tad and I argued. We fought. We broke up. We got back together. And then it all started again. For two years." Kelly shuddered. "It got to the point where, after one of our most recent break ups, I couldn't remember what made me happy besides Tad. I couldn't remember what I liked to do, what my hobbies had been, who I had been. All I knew was that I was Tad's girlfriend." She spit the last sentence out with venom. "So I broke up with him. For good. And I swore that I wouldn't rely on anyone else until I found out who I was first." Her eyes met with Marco's, furiously demanding that he challenge her. Marco's own cool gaze returned hers and he said calmly,

"Just because you don't need a hero doesn't mean you don't need a friend. Someone I trust dearly told me that."

Kelly's fire rose up and she almost lashed out again, but at Marco's calm exterior it faltered and died away. "I can't go back to them. Too much has been said. What if they…" she trailed off and shook her head.

Marco gave her a smile, gentle, warm smile. "Kelly," he admonished lightly, "they're your family. Do you love them?" Kelly gave a stiff, curt nod. "Then I'm sure they still love you. And I bet they're dying for the day that you go back to them and mend the bruises of the past. You just need to make the first move." Kelly seemed hesitant, so Marco added, "I can go with you if you want."

Kelly's eyes opened up wide. She was about to tell him no, but then she stopped. "I- yeah. Maybe." Then she smiled. It was a small yet warm smile, one that Marco hadn't seen since they're trip to the beach. He liked that smile a lot. Before Marco could react, Kelly wrapped her arms around him and gave him a quick hug. "Thank you, Marco. You're a great friend." Marco blinked, but before he could properly react, she was already back in her chair, still smiling warmly at him.

"Uh, yeah, anytime."

Kelly's smile widened. "You'd think with all the times Star has hugged you, you'd be more used to it by now."

Marco shrugged awkwardly. "A surprise hug is still a surprise hug, I guess."

Kelly nodded assent. Then she looked Marco dead in the eyes. "Alright, Marco. Your turn."

Marco gave her a dumb look. "What?"

Kelly's left eyebrow slowly rose up, apparently trying to escape from her head. "How's Star?"

"Oh, uh," Marco hadn't been prepared for the ball to enter his half of the court. "She's fine, you know." Kelly kept staring at him. "Well, you know, she's been busy lately with all of her princess duties and-" Kelly kept staring. Marco sighed. "She's on the edge of going crazy with stress. Eclipsa, meteora's reveal, the damage from Toffee, the monster racism, all of it is just too much. I'm pretty sure that the next thing to go wrong is going to be the hay that break the camel's back."

Kelly pursed her lips. "So you haven't told her?"

Marco scowled. "She's dating Tom right now and is relying on me to be her right hand man in all of this. Dropping that bomb on her would be a lot more than a single straw, you know? Besides, it won't do either of us any good, it'll just divide us more. It's better if I just keep it to myself and either wait for her to be ready or let it die off."

Kelly narrowed her eyes. "Die off?"

Marco shrugged genially. "Yeah, you know. Crushes come and go. Just look at Star. She had a crush on me only a few months ago and now she's with Tom. Maybe the same will happen with me."

Kelly's face broke out in a wide grin. "Marco," she said, barely keeping back the giggles, "You know that just because someone is dating someone doesn't mean that they're in love with that person. How often has Star run away from her problems and distracted herself with other ones?"

Marco's face grew still. He didn't respond. It would have been redundant, as everyone in the room except for the barista knew the answer to the question.

"Me and some of the other girls talked with Star the night she left Earth, and let me tell first hand that she was tearing herself apart over you and Jackie. She kept saying over and over again how she didn't have a crush on you, and how we were all insane for thinking it, and so on and so on. A crush like that doesn't just 'die off'."

Marco's eyebrows knit themselves together. He hadn't known that. Sure, he'd known that Star had been acting weird around him and Jackie after they started dating, but he hadn't realized that she'd been in that much distress over him. _Maybe that's why she wasn't super happy to see me when I went back to Mewni,_ he wondered. _Maybe she was scared of me, of the pain she'd felt._ His stomach turned at the idea that he'd done anything to hurt Star so badly.

"That's all the more reason not to tell her. I don't want her in that kind of pain anymore. I just want her to be happy."

Kelly's smile slowly faded away. "Lying, even lies of omission, leads to crying. How long until you start acting weird around her and get jealous of Tom? At the very least, just talk to her. I don't think you two have done that in a while."

Marco frowned. She had a point. And while he might not be able to tell Star about his crush, he could at least start talking to her more about what had happened over the last few months. "I'll… talk to her. At least about some things. I can't promise that it will come up, but I'll talk to her." He smiled. "Thanks."

Kelly returned the smile. "Anytime." Then her eyes got a little wide and she added, "Did you know that they just came out with strawberry goblin dogs?"

And they talked on and on about a number of different things, mostly trivial news and juicy gossip. They talked about the new goblin dogs, of Pony heads possible dates, the rumors of a new bounce lounge being made somewhere, and of Slime monster and spider bite princess' dating. After about an hour of chatting, Marco checked his phone and jumped in his seat.

"Crap, it's late," He said quickly getting up and untying Glossaryck from the table. "It's way past Glossaryck's bedtime, and Star's probably home by now."

Kelly nodded and rose as well. "I should probably be getting to bed myself." She brushed her hair out of her face again and gave him that warm smile again. "Thanks again for everything."

Marco smiled back. "That's what friends do, they're there for you."

Kelly's smile grew warmer still. "Yeah," she whispered beneath her breath, so quiet that Marco couldn't hear. "That's what friends do."

Marco opened the interdimensional portal back to his room, stepped through with Glossaryck, and found himself face to face with Star Butterfly. The portal closed behind him, leaving his room in silence. Star's eyes were wide, tired, and angry. Marco gulped.

"Uh, hey. How's it going?"

 **This was my original idea for the fic, this chapter in specific. I wanted to make a fic that used Kelly, since she's my favorite character in the show and I was afraid that she'd be underutilized. Then the Christmas episode happened. That'll get added in to the story line farther down in the chapter list. Thank you all for reading. Chapters will be updated every other week, with the off weeks being The Talk chapter updates. Thank you all, and have a merry chirstmas!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Marco!" Star's sharp, shrill voice pierced Marco's ears, making him flinch. She only used that voice when she was either serious, pissed, or seriously pissed. Today, she sounded pissed. Her hands went flying around, mostly gesturing aggressively at Marco as she demanded, "Where the hell were you? I've been looking everywhere for you for the past half hour! Where's Glossaryck? Don't tell me you forgot to look after him again, he-" her eyes narrowed in open suspicion. "Did you bail on me again to go hang out with-"

"No, I didn't bail on you again to hang out with Hekapoo." Marco interrupted her in a crisp, frustrated tone. He couldn't help himself from lashing out at her; she'd gotten a lot more suspicious of him whenever he left to go do anything ever since his adventures with Hekapoo a month ago. Sure, maybe Star had a handful of reasons to question him, but it still hurt whenever she interrogated him. His face screwed up in pent up anger, but he stopped himself and closed his eyes for a second. As much as he wanted to retaliate and say something about trusting her friends, Marco kept his mouth shut. _She's probably just stressed out, that's all,_ he told himself. _Barking back at her won't help anyone._

Marco let out a small sigh, opened his eyes, and held up Glossaryck's leash over his head so that the little blue mystic was yoinked up to eye level. The tiny god made a small choking sound as he was pulled up for Star to see. His big, dark, unfocused eyes made contact with Star's for a second as he began to twist around the hanging leash. Star's own eyes opened wide with shock, comprehension, and then awkward guilt. "Oh," she replied in a low, quiet voice. Marco grimaced but looked Star right in the eyes. She met his resolved eyes with her own unsure ones.

"I didn't go off and party with Hekapoo again, Star, because I can't anymore." He kept his words carefully measured, making sure it he didn't erupt at her. "I gave up my friendship with her to make sure that you were safe during your nighttime adventures last month. That's the price I had to pay so that she wouldn't go blab to the magical council about your portal-making issue." He paused to let the words sink in. "I know that I haven't been the best of squires since I got here, or even the best of friends, but I would very much appreciate it if you could trust me just a little bit more." He couldn't keep the hurt out of his words in the last sentence. Star's face screwed up in guilt, and she let out a heavy sigh. The bags beneath her eyes seemed to grow deeper. Her face showed signs of stress and weariness, aging her face by ten years.

"I- I'm sorry, Marco, I just- I've been so busy with Eclipsa's trial and rebuilding the kingdom and learning politics, I-" Her head fell into her hands and she let out a melodramatic groan. "I'm sorry, Marco," she muttered sourly through her hands.

Marco shrugged, trying to act like it wasn't a big deal. It was, but he hated seeing Star upset. It had always given him a stomach ache, even before he had realized his crush for her. "It's okay, Star, really. You're stressed out, I get it."

Star's hands opened up to show her frustrated face. "No, Marco, it's not alright." Her hands clamped onto Marco's cheeks and she stared him dead in the eye, eyes full of righteous determination. "You deserve better, Marco. I swear on my life that I will make it up to you."

Marco gave her a small smile. Star's hands were warm against his cheeks. She always looks so cute when she gets like this,some quiet part of his brain noted. "Thanks, Star. It means a lot to me."

Star returned his tiny smile with a larger, brighter, more playful one. "Anything for my most trusted and loyal squire."

Marco let out a small chuckle and backed out of her hands to give her a small bow. "Thank you, your highness."

Star snorted. Her eyes fell down onto Glossaryck, now scratching himself on the floor. "So, if you weren't hangin' out with H-poo, what were you doing? Where'd you go?"

Marco sniffed and then started scratching his head mindlessly. "About three hours after you left, Kelly called me and said she needed some help. Apparently she was about to be beheaded for not paying her rent."

Star let out a disbelieving noise. "You mean Bruce? Ah, come on, Bruce would never hurt a fly, much less Kelly."

Marco gave her a serious glare. "He had a battle axe with him. A bloodied battle axe."

Star bit her lip and shrugged her shoulder, clearly uncomfortable. "Ah, well, you know him, he talks a big game, but, you know, it was probably fake blood or, or… or something." She tried to look casual and readjusted herself while making the most unconvincing face ever. Marco kept staring at her and her façade died away. "How's Kelly?"

Marco shrugged. "Ok, I think. She's still dealing with her break up with Tad and stuff, but I think she'll be alright. We had coffee for a while and talked about it. I think she'll be fine."

Star nodded. "Kelly's a strong girl. She'll get over it." Her left eyebrow rose, eyes scanning Marco. Her face grew still. "Coffee, huh? Not the best first date, but I guess there's worse." Her voice was calm, controlled, impassive. She'd tried to go for lighthearted, but it had come out a lot more stone cold than she'd wanted it to.

If there was anything odd about Star's tone, Marco didn't notice it. "It wasn't a date, Star, geez!" His cheeks had gone red and his voice was indignant and cracked occasionally. "A guy can't help his friend out without being in love with them? Come on, Star, how many times have I helped you out of a sticky situation?"

Star subconsciously relaxed and giggled. "Relax, Marco, it was a joke."

Marco glared at her, perturbed, and then sullenly asked, "Speaking of dates, how was yours tonight? You were gone for forever."

Star took in a deep breath and tensed up her shoulders. She looked like she would rather be anywhere else at the moment. "It… got complicated."

"How-"

"Don't ask."

"But-"

"Marco."

Silence, then, "Fine." Part of Marco knew that Star wouldn't answer him no matter how hard he pried, and a much larger part of him didn't want to know what had made Star's date so complicated. He paused for a moment before changing the subject. "So, any updates on the trial?"

Star shrugged. "No, not really. I tried to do some more investigating today, but I came up empty. It's been difficult finding evidence that she was innocent when the crime is 'she's evil'. I mean, what am I supposed to say at her trial when all my mom is saying is that she's a bad person?"

"Show her that she's not," Marco responded, supportive despite completely believing that Eclipsa was going to stab Star in the back the second it was convenient to her. He had been keeping his own eye on her, just in case Star was wrong. He knew what she would say, that he wasn't trusting her, but she was wrong. He trusted Star. He just didn't trust Eclipsa. "If Eclipsa hasn't done anything except date a monster and help kill Toffee, then they can't condemn her. Otherwise, they're the villians."

Star bit her lip, unsure. She began to tap her foot on the ground repeatedly in a nervous gesture. "I know, I know, but what if they find her guilty because of some old mewman law I don't know, or just because they're afraid of her? I just- it's not fair that they can just freeze her like a popsicle stick 'cause they think she might, MIGHT, be evil."

"Uh, Star?"

"Huh?" Marco pointed to her feet, and she scowled, stopping her foot.

Marco gave her a small smile and put his hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be alright, Star. We've pulled through rougher crap than this. You'll see."

Star shrugged, but still looked uncertain. "We'll see. Hey, I'm going to go ask Eclipsa about more of her past tomorrow, can you come along and help?"

Marco's smile widened. "Of course."

Star smiled back. Marco had a wonderful smile. "Thanks, Marco. What would I do without you?"

Marco's cheeks started to glow, but he caught himself. "Probably burning down a small village by accident with unpredictable magic."

Star gave him a light shove. "Yeah, right." She let out a sigh and looked to the window. "Oh, shit, it's late." She pointed her fingers to the door with a swing of her body. "Adios, mi amigo. Beauty sleep and stuff."

"See you tomorrow, Star."

Star nodded her head and turned for the door. Marco hesitated, then blurted out, "Wait!"

Star's head whipped around, eyebrow reaching for the sky. "What?"

Marco pursed his lips and force the words out, 'We need to talk.' But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't say it. He didn't know what stopped him from asking her to open up to him. It wasn't like he was going to tell her about his crush on her, they were just going to talk about what was up: why Star had been so distant, how she had gotten over her crush on him, why he had really come to Mewni, all of it. But he couldn't say it. Maybe he was afraid that it would end up leading to him accidentally revealing his crush, or maybe he was just afraid of what else might be said. Either way, Marco didn't tell Star, 'We need to talk.' Instead, he said, "Ah, never mind. We'll talk about it later."

Star stared at him for a moment, uncertain and awkward the way a teen can only be. "You sure?"

Marco nodded emphatically, silently cursing himself. "See you tomorrow."

Star paused for another second that lasted an infinity to Marco, then nodded and left. Marco sighed and looked down at Glossaryck, tired and worn out. Glossaryck's big eyes met his own, focused on him for a second, and he said, "Glob Glor."

"Whatever."


	4. Chapter 4

Star stared up into the pitch-black abyss that hid the ceiling of her room. It was late on Mewni, sometime between eleven o'clock and midnight. With the lack of a city or town full of lightbulbs to fill the night sky with light pollution, Star couldn't see her own hands in front of her face. With the lack of light around her and her body still, Star was able to key onto her other senses more aptly: She could feel her chest rise and fall and rise again as she breathed, could smell the faint scent of lemon in her linens, and could hear how absolutely quiet the world around her was. And yet, while Mewni slept soundly and Star's room lay as motionless as her body, her mind raced with fears and doubt that kept her from embracing the peacefulness around her and falling asleep as well.

Mewni. Her people. Her role as a princess and eventually queen. The damage Toffee dealt to everyone. The monsters and how she was going to end the prejudice against them. Eclipsa. Her mother. Her friends. Tom. Marco. All of it kept cycling in and out, one doubt leading to another fear leading to more anxiety and frustration. How could she keep her friendship with Marco strong, her relationship with Tom equally stable, her fellow mewmans happy as well as the monsters, her mother's warning's in mind while also her sense of justice towards Eclipsa-

Star tightened her fists and closed her eyes, frustration boiling over into anger. Why did she have to juggle so much at one time? Any one of those issues would have been challenge enough, and now she had all of them on her at once. The stress was crushing her, suffocating her, destroying her. She needed some way to deal with it all, to relieve herself of the weight of her worries. She thought about running away. She thought about running far, far away to some distant, unknown dimension where she could ignore everything that was going on in Mewni and just stop caring.

It was tempting.

Star opened her eyes again and let out a small sigh. It wouldn't work. Hekapoo or Marco would find her. Hekapoo knew the dimensions too well, and Marco had already used the spying spell to find where the golden portal had transported her. Besides, she couldn't just leave it all behind. She cared too much. It was the reason she was worrying in the first place, because she didn't want to hurt anyone, to let them down. Leaving right now would just make her guilt worse and worse until she cracked. Running away never makes anything better, it just delays the inevitable.

 _You would know,_ a tiny voice in the back of her head whispered. _You're_ very _good at running away._

In front of Star, in the black void she had been staring on and off again for the past hour, she saw the image of Marco Diaz, her best friend, her once crush, now squire. She saw him smile, scream out in terror, laugh, cry, stare at her like she was the only thing that mattered, his face when she told him to the truth, his lips making the words "I-"

Star closed her eyes quickly. In the darkness that consumed her, she saw Marco with Jackie. Hugging. Kissing. Laughing. Pain soared through her, but before it could overwhelm her, she thought out a simple command: _stop_. _It's over._ And the images dissipated, colors recombining to show her Tom, his own warm smile and charming features looking back at her. She saw his anger, his frustration, his selfishness. And then she saw his shamed face, his efforts to improve, his pathetic face begging her for a second chance. She thought about shutting him out as well, but before she could do so, their conversation from earlier in the night came up.

Star had tried to confide in Tom about her worries regarding the future of Mewni and her political issues, but Tom had cut her off.

"Star, Star, you need to chill out," he said smoothly. "All these worries are gonna kill you, girl. You need to relax, kick back and enjoy yourself a little more."

Star's face grew irritated. "These problems aren't just going to go away, Tom. If I don't deal with them now, it'll all just get worse and worse until I can't do anything about them. I need your help to get through this."

"Star, I'm still only a prince." His voice had gotten more agitated, more frustrated. The candle in between them had gotten slightly brighter. "You're still only a princess. Let your mother handle all of this, it's her job."

Star shook her head. "Haven't you been paying attention? My mom's the one trying to convict Eclipsa, and she doesn't care about the monsters. If I let her just do her thing, I'm screwed. I can't just ignore the world around me because I don't want to deal with it, Tom. Not anymore. And you shouldn't either."

The candle fire grew brighter and hotter once again, eating away at the wax below it at an alarming rate. "Star, you're going insane over this stuff. You can't keep going like this, no matter how important all of this is to you. I'm just asking that when we're together we let go and just enjoy the moment, ok?"

Star took in a deep breathe and was about to reply when they were ambushed by a group of masked bandits. The fighting with the bandits ended up taking two full hours. By the end of it, most of the bandits had fled, except for one. Star had trapped them in a large glob of syrup, immobilizing them. When Star and Tom went to interrogate him, the bandit had tried to spit in their faces. They demanded to know why they had attacked. The bandit reluctantly informed them that they had been trying to assassinate them, as they were part of a cult that was out to destroy the kingdoms of Mewni and replace them with new governments. Tom was ready to end the bandit, but Star stopped him and called for her guards to come and collect him instead. As they were leaving the restaurant they had been eating/fighting in, Star made one last remark:

"Do you think ignoring that would have stopped that?"

Tom scowled. "No, but I think it would have lessened the rest of the stresses on you."

Star bit her lip but didn't respond. Sleep was starting to come to her, and the memory began to fade into abstraction. As her consciousness left her, one last thought pierced her mind: _Maybe he was right._

The next day, Star woke up drowsy and achy. She groaned bitterly at the beam of light that penetrated her curtains and found their way right into Star's eyes. Grumbling curses of pain and endless death under her breath in Mewnian, she turned to her other side and tried to fall back asleep.

Knock, knock, knock- "Hey, Star!" Marco's muffled voice hit Star's eardrums like a tsunami wave. "Are you ready? It's nearly eight."

Star pulled her pillow over her head and groaned in deep frustration. She considered telling him that it would only be a moment and then fall back to sleep, or not answering at all and fall back to sleep, or destroy all of Mewni with a single magical blast, destroying everything and everyone she knew… and then fall back to sleep.

Instead, she got up, yawned moodily, and responded, "Give me a few minutes." A few minutes later, Star opened her bedroom door to find Marco waiting, his left foot tapping away impatiently. Star narrowed her eyes at him. "Kept you waiting, huh?"

Marco frowned disapprovingly. "Come on, Star, I know it sucks, but if we don't get up early, we'll never get-"

"-anything done, I know." As much as Star hated it, Marco's timeliness and 'morning person' attitude had helped her get a lot more done than she had before he'd arrived. That didn't mean she had to like it, though. Star was not, and would most likely never be, a 'morning person'. Getting up before ten o'clock had been a foreign idea to her on Earth, and with Marco back, it looked like she'd be stuck with that schedule forever. Star grimaced and tried to muster up enough energy to wake up out of her slow start. "Gotta take the day by surprise before it takes you by surprise."

Marco gave her an absurdly pleased smile. "Exactly! We've got a lot on our plate today, so we've got to start now." He dug deep into one of his skinny jeans' pockets and pulled out a small crumpled piece of paper. "I started a list for today to help us get organized. First things first, we'll-" and Marco proceeded to list off a number of different chores and activities that they would do that day. Some of the items were royal duties Star had to take care of, some were household chores they needed to do, and a few were activities based around relaxation and chilling out. Star smiled. Marco knew that she had a lot that she needed to get done, but he also knew how to balance it out so that Star didn't go insane. Also he was a huge dork about it and it was adorable to see.

"-talk to Eclipsa-" Marco listed off mindlessly.

Star winced and looked down towards the ground. Marco was too distracted with his list to notice until he reached the last item. "- And that takes us to bed. It's a pretty full schedule, but I'm sure that if we- Star?"

Star took in a deep breath and steeled herself. Then she looked at Marco with her most serious and determined eyes and said, "I need to talk to Eclipsa alone." Her voice was crisp, short, business-like. Marco blinked and returned her serious gaze with a dumb one.

"Uh, are you-"

"Yes," Star cut him off. She kept her hard gaze on him, trying not to let any doubt or concern show. "I… I need to talk to her myself. I don't think she likes you very much, and she probably won't give us a lot of info if you're there, sooooooooo… yeah."

Marco stared at her, still shocked. Why would she have asked him to help her last night and then immediately tell him to stay away the next morning? "Are you-"

"Yes."

Silence. "Ok, if you say so."

Star winced. She hadn't meant to be so harsh. She gave Marco a reassuring smile. "Hey, you said it yourself, it's going to be a big day today. I don't want to over work you. Just, I don't know, hang out with some one or enjoy the, uh, garden or…" her voice trailed off and her false upbeat tone died with it. "I'm sorry," she said flatly, "But I can't have you there for the interrogation."

Marco stared at her for a long time, unsure. He knew that something was up, but he also knew how stubborn Star was and that she most likely wasn't going to tell him what was up. At least not yet. "Well, if you're sure…"

"Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine." Star took the list out of Marco's hand and started walking down the hallway. "So what's the first thing on the list, breakfast? Ooooooo, today's Sunday, you know what that means?" Star's face brightened up with real excitement. "Corn!"

Marco's stare didn't waver at first, still concerned. Eventually, however, Star's carefree attitude got the best of him and he relaxed. His face grew pale and ill, and he muttered under his breath, "We have corn everyday. For every meal."

Star rolled her eyes. "Marco, you've been here for how many months? We only grow corn. We only eat corn. We are corn."

An image of a corn Star popped into Marco's head and he shivered. "God, no."

The rest of the morning went smoothly. They ate breakfast, talked with dignitaries regarding current events and political negotiations, investigated mewman law for Eclipsa's trial, and ate lunch (which tasted incredibly similar to their breakfast). Neither acted like anything odd was going on, though Marco did glance at Star several times, still wondering why she was acting so oddly. It wasn't as though Star was acting unlike herself, as Marco could remember several times when she had been suddenly cold or remote both on Earth and on Mewni. For a long time, Marco just thought that it was one of Star's many quirks and that it didn't really matter. Then Star had acted extremely weird towards Marco before revealing her crush on him. After that, Marco had come to realize that Star's weird behavior wasn't just random and goofy, they were signals that Star was holding back something… in a goofy way. The only problem was the Marco couldn't figure out what Star's mannerisms meant. He just hadn't paid attention earlier in their friendship to figure out what they meant.

Marco was silently cursing himself for not being more observant in the past while also racking his brain for any details he missed throughout when Star waved her hand in front of him. "Marco, wake up." Her voice was curt and business-like. It was likely that Marco had missed her first few attempts to break through his pensive thoughts. Marco blinked.

"Wha?" He asked dazed, trying to remember what he'd been doing and what Star had been saying.

Star frowned at him. "I said I don't know how long my talk with Eclipsa will take, so you're probably going to have to ignore the schedule for the rest of the day."

Marco shook his head and remembered where he was. They had just finished lunch and they'd started walking down the hallway towards the garden. Star had been saying something about Eclipsa when he'd zoned out.

"Oh, right… hey, wait!" Marco's face grew red with indignation. "We can't break away from the schedule, we'll never get anything done."

"Marco, Marco." Star had a wonderful way of talking down to people who were taller than her. "Life is change. We must adjust to what it throws at us."

Marco gave her a sour look. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not how it works, Star."

Star gave him a flat look. "Get over it Marco." She waved him goodbye, saying "See you later. Don't get yourself killed."

Marco's heartbeat rose up with concern. He was about to ask Star one last time if she was sure that she wanted to talk to Eclipsa alone, but she had already taken off. Marco thought about going after her, confronting her and demanding to know what was up. It was very tempting. The issue was that it wasn't going to solve anything, and he knew it. Star was the most stubborn person he knew, save for maybe himself. Despite that, a large part of him still wanted to go and protect her, save her from…

Herself?

Marco shook his head and started walking again. He didn't know where, just that he needed to clear his thoughts. Star would be fine, he reasoned. She was very capable and had grown a lot since he'd met her. And she hated it when people doubted her or treated her like she was incompetent or incapable. If he'd tried to butt in, it probably would have just hurt their already rocky friendship more. Probably.

Then again, he was supposed to be her squire, her voice of reason, her best friend. Would a real friend act so passive and uninvolved when there was the possibility that they were in danger, that they needed help? Star had made her fair share of mistakes, and Marco had helped stop her from making some worse ones before.

But then again, everyone made mistakes. Including himself. _Like coming back here when you were clearly not wanted,_ a small voice whispered into his ear.

Bzzzt, bzzzt. Marco's phone rang twice, and then not at all. Marco pushed aside whatever doubts he had at the moment about Star or himself to see who had texted him. For the second time in twenty four hours, Kelly's face shone up at him from the screen on his phone. Next to her face was a single word: "So?"

"So what?"

"You know what I mean. Did you talk to her?"

Marco grimaced. "No. Didn't get the chance to."

"Mmmmmmm. Really?"

"Don't 'MMMMMMMMMM Really me. It was late and she was tired. I'll tell her later."

"Sure. Also, I didn't MMMMMMMMMM Really you. I Mmmmmmmmm Really'd you."

"Ha ha. How's your moving going?"

"As a matter of fact, I just got off of work and was going to start packing some of my things."

"Sure you were."

Instead of a text message, Kelly sent him a picture of herself in an apartment room. The room didn't have much in it, a bed, a computer, some books on a shelf, some basic appliances like clocks and stuff, and several brown moving boxes. Kelly had one of the books in her hand and was putting it into one of the brown boxes.

"Huh." Marco was surprised. After seeing how scared Kelly was of facing her parents again, he was sure that she would have delayed even starting the moving process for at least a week. He was impressed. "Damn. Well done." And then, without thinking, he added, "Need any help?"

Kelly didn't respond immediately. Marco grew embarrassed and started cursing himself. Had he seemed to forward, to imposing? They had just met and talked for a long time last night, and he didn't want to give her the wrong idea. But then,

"Sure, that'd be great! There's more here than it looks. See you soon?"

Marco relaxed, smiled, and instead of replying, took out his scissors. He ripped a hole through dimensions that showed him the face of a beaming friend. "Hey Marco!"

 **Whoa this is long. This is really two-three chapters in one, but it would have felt awkward to separate it all, and I wanted the next chapter to skip back to Kelly. Also, there won't be another chapter for a few weeks. I need to take a hiatus to better map out the story and see where I want it to go. Next week there will be a fic for a friend of mine, and the week after a fic for a request. Until then, stay safe and have a nice day!**


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